Bottle-washing machine.



H; W. VAN LEIR. 0 BOTTLE WASHING momm APPL'IOATION FILED 0053.11, 1908,

968,901. 0 y PatentedAug.30,1910.

3 SHEBTB-BHBET 1.

H. W. VAN LEIR. BOTTLE WASHING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED 00117, 1908.

968,901 Patented Aug. 30,1910.

3 BHBETSSHEBT 2.

H. W. VAN LEIR. BOTTLE WASHING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED 0052.17, 1908.

. o O E Q A W V /llltllll/ Patented Aug. 30, 1910.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY W. VAN LEIR, 0F PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR T0 S. S. WEN- ZELL MACHINE COMPANY, OF CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA, A CORPORATION OF WEST VIRGINIA.

BOTTLE-WASHING- MACHINE.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY W. VAN LEIR, a citizen of the United States, residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented certain Improvements in Bottle-Washing Machines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to certain improvements in bottle washing machines of the type known as the Eick bottle washing machine, in which the bottles are clamped mouth clownv between upper and lower clamping plates and are reci-procated vertically over rotating cleaning brushes whose stems pass down through a telescopic casing and are driven by gearing located at the base of the latter.

One object of my invention is to effect the convenient adjustment of the clamping devices for the upper clamp plate to suit bottles of different lengths, another object be; ing to readily compensate for differences in the weight of the charge of bottles with which the machine is loaded, and a still further object being to so construct the machine as to effect the simultaneous washing of both the outside and the inside of each bottle. These objects I attain in the manner hereinafter set forth, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of suificient of a bottle washing machine of the type to which my invention relates to illustrate the application thereto of those parts which constitute my present invention; Fig. 2 is a sectional plan view, illustrating the location of the external cleaning brushes in respect to the groups of bottles, and Fi 3 is an enlarged sectional view of part 0% the machine, on the line a-a, Fig. 2.

In the drawings, 1-1 represent oppositely disposed posts or standards connected together at their upper ends by a cross frame 2 and serving as guides for the vertically movable upper and lower clamping plates 3 and 4 whereby the bottles are held in position in the machine during the washing op eration. Heads 5', which are free to slide on the posts 1, carry the lower clamping plate 4 and have projecting bosses 6 to which are attached the upper ends of rods 7 whose Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed October 17, 1908.

Patented Aug. 30, 1910. Serial No. 458,219.

lower ends are connected to a vibrating lever at the base of the machine, as shown in my Letters Patent No. 895,918, dated August llth, 1908. Projecting upwardly from the bosses 6 are rods 9 which are secured by any desirable means to bosses 11 on heads 12, the latter being slidably mounted on the vertical posts 1, and providing bearings for a shaft 13 which has cams 14 for acting upon the top clamping plate 3, the guiding heads 3 of the latter being guided on the posts 1, and suspended from the heads 12 by means of springs 15, as shown in Fig. 1.

The shaft 13 is provided with a suitable handle 16 whereby it may be readily turned so as to cause the cams 14 to depress the upper clamping plate 3 and confine the bottles between the same and the lower clampmg plate 4 or so as to raise said cams 14 and permit the upper clam-ping plate 3 to be lifted by means of the springs 15 in order to release the bottles and permit of the removal of the same and the insertion of a new set.

In changing from one height of bottle to another, it is necessary to eifect vertical adjustment of the cam shaft 13 in respect to the lower clamping plate 4, and for this purpose I provide the bosses 11 with bearings for a transverse shaft 17 which has, at each end, a crank arm 19, and, in any convenient position, an operating handle 20, the crank arms being connected by rods 21 to the bosses 6. When the set screws which confine the bosses 11 are loosened, therefore, the cam-shaft-carrying heads 12 are supported by means of these crank arms and connecting rods and by turning the shaft 17 the heads 12 can be raised or lowered to any desired extent, and, when properly adjusted, can be again secured in position by tightening the set screws 10.

Similar adjusting devices were used in the machine shown in my Letters Patent 865,217, dated September 3rd, 1907, but in that machine the crank-arm-shaft 17 was located below the lower clamping plate and was adapted to brackets secured to the lower heads 5, the connecting rods being secured to the bosses 11 on the camshaft-carrying heads.

In my present machine the location of the crank-arm-shaft below the lower clamping plate is inadmissible because of the presence of certain bottle-rotating devices hereinafter described, and I therefore, in the present machine, mount the crank-arm'shaft upon the same heads 12 which carry the cam-shaft, thus not only locating said crankarm-shaft where it is out of the way but also rendering unnecessary the use of any special brackets for providing bearings for said shaft.

Instead of counter-balancing the levers whereby vertical reciprocating movement is imparted to the bottle-carrying devices as in the machine of my Letters Patent No. 895,918, I now mount upon suitable bearings on the top frame of the machine a pair of sheaves 22 each of which serves for the reception and guidance of a rope, cord, chain, or other flexible connection 23 se cured at its front end to the upper end of one of the rods 9 and carrying, at its rear end, a series of slotted weights 24: which thus serve to counter-balance the weight of the bottle holding and reciprocating devices, additional weights being readily added when a change in the character of the bottles to be washed imposes an additional load, or the weights being readily re moved when the change is one involving a lessening of the load, whereas, in the former machine, the counter-balance weights had to be adjusted upon the lever arms and this consumed time and required the exercise of considerable skill and was therefore frequently neglected by a hurried or careless attendant. By the use of suspended and removable weights the attendant can very quickly and without the exercise of any particular skill or care counter-balance the weight of the bottle-carrying mechanism and its load of bottles whenever there is any change in the character of the bottles to washed.

In the present machine, as in the ordinary machine of the type to which my invention relates, the mouths of the inverted bottles rest upon spring supported nozzles 25, contained in openings in the lower clamping plate 4, these nozzles being tubular for the reception of the spindles 26 which carry the inside cleaning brushes 27 and are rotated by gearing at the base of the telescopic casing 29, as shown in my Letters Patent No. 895,918. Ordinarily, these nozzles have no rotating movement, but, in my present machine, I impart such rotating movement to them and from them to the bottles, the nozzles being, by preference, provided with rubber or other elastic bushings 30 in order to give them such a grip upon the mouths of the bottles as to convey rotating movement to the latter.

The upturned bottoms of the bottles are engaged by pressure cups 31 carried by spindles 32, each free to turn in the upper clamping plate 3 and supported thereon by means of nuts 33 and washers 34:, the upward thrust upon the pressure cups 31 being resisted by balls 35 contained in raceways formed in wear plates 36 and 37 carried, respectively, by the pressure cups and by the upper clamping plate 3, as shown in Fig. 3.

Below the lower clamping plate 4:, and connected therewith so as to reciprocate vertically with it, is a gear casing comprising upper and lower plates 40 and 4:1 in which are formed bearings for the hubs of spur wheels 42 splined or otherwise con-- nected to the tubular nozzles 25, so as to permit vertical play of the latter in the hubs and yet insure rotation of the nozzles with said spur wheels.

The supporting springs 43 for the nozzles 25 are interposed between the hubs of the spur wheels and flanges at the tops of the nozzles, and the hub of each spur wheel 42 has an anti-friction support in a cup-like portion 44 of the plate 41, such support comprising a series of balls 45 interposed between wear plates 46 and i7, as shown 111 Fig. 2.

The bottles are arranged in intersecting rows on the plate 4, there being in the present instance four rows of four each, so as to form four groups of four bottles each, and centrally disposed in respect to each of these groups is a spindle 50 which is rotated by a member of the same system of gearing which rotates the brush spindles 26, this spindle passing freely through openings in the lower clamp plate 4 and in the plates 40 and 41 of the gear case being of polygonal cross section or provided with a groove for receiving a spline in the hub of a spur pinion 51 which meshes with the spur wheels 42 of the group of nozzles in connection with which said spindle 50 operates.

The spindle 50 is hollow and is provided at its upper end with a brush 52 of any appropriate character, and of a size sufficient to contact with the outer surfaces of the group of bottles in connection with which it is used, water being supplied to the brush through the hollow spindle 50 in substantially the same manner as it is supplied to the internal brushes 27 through the hollow spindles 26. When, therefore, the machine is in operation, the rotating brushes 27 contact with the inner walls of the bottles and the rotating brush 52 contacts with the outer surfaces of the group of bottles within which it is arranged, the vertical movement of the bottles in respect to the brushes insuring the contact of the same with the bottles from top to bottom of the same.

The gearing which rotates the spindle 50 is, by preference, so constructed in respect to the gearing which rotates the spindles 26 that each of the latter will rotate in a direction the reverse of the direction of rotation of the bottle in which it operates.

I claim 1. In a bottle washing machine, the combination of a fixed frame, brushes for washing the outsides of the bottles, operating mechanism for said brushes, upper and lower clamping devices for the bottles, a cam shaft cooperating with the upper clamping device, carrier heads for the lower clamping device, carrier heads for the cam shaft, reciprocating mechanism connecting said carrier heads, and an adjusting device for determining the extent of separation of the two carrier heads, said adjusting de vice comprising a shaft mounted in bearings in the upper carrier heads and having crank arms connected by means of rods to the lower carrier heads.

2. In a machine for washing inverted bottles, the combination of upper and lower bottle clamping devices, rotatable pressure cups carried by the upper clamping device and bearing upon the upturned bottoms of the bottles, rotatable brushing devices for acting on the insides of the bottles, rotatable nozzles carried by the lower clamping device and in driving connection with the inverted mouths of the bottles, said nozzles being independent of the internal brushing devices and means on said lower clamping device fpr simultaneously rotating all of said noz- 2 es.

3. In a machine forwashing inverted bottles, the combination of upper and lower clamping devices, rotatable pressure cups carried by the upper clamping device and bearing upon the upturned bot-toms of the bottles, rotatable brushing devices for acting on the insides of the bottles, rotatable nozzles carried by the lower clamping device and in driving connection with the inverted mouths of the bottles, said nozzles being independent of the internal brushing devices, rotatable elastic supports for said nozzles, and means for simultaneously rotating all of the nozzles.

4. In a machine for washing inverted bot tles, the combination of upper and lower clamping devices for the bottles, rotatable pressure cups carried by the upper clamping device and bearing upon the upturned bottoms of the bottles, rotatable brushing devices for acting on the insides of the bottles, rotatable nozzles carried by the lower clamping device and having elastic bushings which bear upon the inverted mouths of the bottles and constitute a driving connection between the same and the rotating nozzles, elastic supports for such nozzles, and means for rotating the nozzles.

bottles, said nozzles being independent of the internal brushing devices, means for reciprocating the clamping devices and the bottles carried thereby, and a gear casing connected to and movable with the lower clamping device and carrying gearing for simultaneously rotating all of the nozzles.

6. In a machine for washing inverted bottles, the combination of rotatable brushing devices for acting on the insides of the bottles, a lower bottle-clamping device having rotatable nozzles in driving connection with .the inverted mouths of the bottles, said nozzles being independent of the internal brushing devices, a gear carrier on said lower clamping device having gear wheels in rotative engagement with all of the nozzles but through which said nozzles can slide, and elastic supports for said nozzles.

7. In a machine for washing inverted bottles, the combination of the lower bottleclamping device having rotatable nozzles in driving connection with the inverted mouths of the bottles, a gear carrier on said lower clamping device having gear wheels in rotative engagement with the nozzles but through which said nozzles can slide, and elastic supports for said nozzles, each inserted between a shouldered portion of the nozzle and the driving gear wheel therefor.

8. In a machine for washing inverted bottles, the combination of a bottle-clamping device having rotating nozzles, supports therefor, gear wheels in driving connection with said nozzles, and a spindle having a pinion which meshes with said gear wheels, said spindle occupying a central position in respect to a group of nozzles.

9. In a machine for washing inverted bot tles, the combination of a bottle-clamping device having rotating nozzles and supports therefor, gear wheels engaging said nozzles, and a spindle having a pinlon which meshes with said gear wheels, said spindle occupying a central position in respect to a group of nozzles and having a brush for acting upon the outsides of a corresponding group of bottles.

10. In a machine for washing inverted bottles, the combination of bottle-clamping devices having rotatable nozzles in driving connection with the inverted mouths of the bottles, supports for said nozzles, a spindle occupying a central position in respect to a group 0 nozzles but havmg no vertical .4 ees eoi movement, gearing whereby said spindles In testimony whereof, I have signed my are caused to rotate said group of nozzles, name to this specification, in the presence of and means for impartingvertieal reciprotwo subscribing Witnesses.

eating movement to the bottle-clamping de- HENRY W. VAN LEIR. 5 vices, their nozzles and gearing without at Witnesses:

fecting the driving connection between the ELSIE FULLERTON,

gearing and the central spindle. THOS. S. LOUDERBAOK. 

